Once again, I pull together my collective thoughts (that _was_ rather difficult) and send them along for the remainder of the cypherpunks to ponder. It would appear that several things have happened; let's see if I can summarize - - The Clinton administration was presented with a golly-gee proposal from either the NSA or the NIST (probably both) on a way to "offer" public encryption. ('Nuf said.) - From what we have surmised (researched, hypothesized and down-right taken for face value), the government (whether it be the NIST or whomever) has obviously been working on this "technology" for a few years. Albeit, their negligence to inform anyone. - Mr. Clinton and crew obligingly acknowledge this new, technological wonder, and think that they're doing us all a favor. - Enter the "Clipper Chip", and all it's fanfare. Okay. I took The Dark One's advice (not that I needed the prodding, mind you) and faxed every one of the contacts on the list that he posted earlier (a couple of which were voice numbers, BTW). The big three (ABC, NBC and CBS + CNN) got my fax and my thoughts on the subject. I'm mad as hell, too -- yet I'm more prone to bringing this highly volatile subject (it would seem that it's only an explosive situation to those of us who understand it's implications) into the public eye. Let's put this topic into proper prospective -- for the layman, for the "man in the streets." Let me try to put this into prospective for some of our less politically inclined participants. For those of you who live within earshot of the "Beltway", you are probably familiar with the G. Gordon Liddy radio show. Well, to make a long story short, one afternoon the topic was computer crime. A young man called in to express his concern with the topic of "underground" computer virus distribution and all that rot. He was talking on a deaf ear, folks. The program was dominated by yuppies, calling in worried about their precious credit records and how they could possibly be disclosed or damaged by the computer criminals. I turned off the show in disgust at that point, but the point is this: No matter how hard you attempt to bring matters into the light that the _computer_ public should be concerned about, they revert into their own realm of protected computerdom. This is an observation, not a conviction. What we need to do, is to make folks understand that this is not just a computer issue -- it's privacy issue, for cryin' out loud! If the techno-fascists within certain levels of government service think that they can _impose_ their will on the computer community at large, they are most definately ill-informed. Most would probably think that they could fluff this little tidbit of "legislation" into reality. Bottom line: I stand by the ideals that we have every right, as common citizens, to encrypt and cipher as we see fit. Legality be damned. (This is not a legality issue, for christ's sake!) This is an issue where the government is playing bully and we find ourselves on the receiving end of their quest for superiority. I urge each and every one of you to take the time to write your congressman, fax the closest televison or radio station and make this topic as public as possible! I refuse to be treated like a criminal because I desire electronic privacy. Say "No". Cheers. Oh. By the way, I'm looking for some kind sort to offer an avenue to place Legal Net News on an archive site on a regular basis. I find it extremely difficult to meet subscription requests and would prefer to offer this compilation as an anon FTP'able newsletter. Any takers? Issue 2 has bee released, which covers our recent travails .... Paul Ferguson | Uncle Sam wants to read Network Integration Consultant | your e-mail... Alexandria, Virginia USA | Just say "NO" to the Clipper fergp@sytex.com | Chip...